Posted on 03/27/2011 5:42:59 PM PDT by Yardstick
Can I let you in on a secret? Typing two spaces after a period is totally, completely, utterly, and inarguably wrong.
And yet people who use two spaces are everywhere, their ugly error crossing every social boundary of class, education, and taste.[snip]
What galls me about two-spacers isn't just their numbers. It's their certainty that they're right. Over Thanksgiving dinner last year, I asked people what they considered to be the "correct" number of spaces between sentences. The diners included doctors, computer programmers, and other highly accomplished professionals. Everyone—everyone!—said it was proper to use two spaces. Some people admitted to slipping sometimes and using a single space—but when writing something formal, they were always careful to use two. Others explained they mostly used a single space but felt guilty for violating the two-space "rule." Still others said they used two spaces all the time, and they were thrilled to be so proper. When I pointed out that they were doing it wrong—that, in fact, the correct way to end a sentence is with a period followed by a single, proud, beautiful space—the table balked. "Who says two spaces is wrong?" they wanted to know.
Typographers, that's who. The people who study and design the typewritten word decided long ago that we should use one space, not two, between sentences. That convention was not arrived at casually.[snip]
(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...
Space it from orbit.
As someone who is both professionally a writer and has a Masters in creative writing, I often go out of my way to: place commas where I know they shouldn't go; not capitalize letters where a capital should appropriately exist; leave out important vowels or consonants in words; use improper grammar; leave nouns out of sentences that legally would no longer qualify to be called a sentence. I rarely however leave only one space after a period. You can bet I will now and all for the opposing reason than the other grievances mentioned above . . . to follow the rules. ;-)
That'll really throw off the rule hounds :-).
I’m sorry!
;-P
Depends on whether or not you took typing class in high school. If you did you’re a double spacer.
There's no problem with spaces when you type only one word :)
Actually, I vaguely remember getting a fairly long article accepted for publication, and they asked me to change all the double spaces to single.
Fortunately, that was fairly easy to do with a computer.
Don't forget the new earthquake in Japan.
You forgot Ginger versus Mary Ann.
Tell that to FontShop. A font is a collection of typefaces.
I doubt I could ever get use to doing 2. I have never even heard of this “controversy”
Then again....
The whole idea of it offends me greatly! I am adamant and heartfelt about this issue!
not really.
We learned in typing class in 1970 to put two spaces after the period. I’ve always done it and always will.
And no one expressed any interest in the tragedy of Smokey T. Bear and his long-suffering spouse/sow.
What a world, what a world . (space) . (space) .
If you were a professional typographer like I was in the 1970s, you're a single spacer.
I was taught the same thing in high school in the early 90s but the writer makes a good point. He says that double spacing made sense when typing on a typewriter back in the day, but that in the 1970s that changed when word processors with proportional fonts arrived on the scene. These made the second space obsolete by the way they automatically adjusted the spacing between letters. Going even further back, before typewriters, typesetters used proportional fonts with only a single space. The doublespace thing was actually a historical anomaly -- a kluge really -- to compensate for the non-proportional fonts that manual typewriters had which required a second space to avoid confusion.
Welp, I always kinda related spacing to wimen. Since they usually take more than they need, they will use two spaces, kinda like parallel parking.
Now guys, on the other hand, will only use what they need to park, one space.
One space and one space only.
My typing teacher said “two”, so two it is!
Never mind this nonsense: How many spaces after a colon?
Consequently, I consider the two-space rule to be in force whenever I type on an Olivetti electric typewriter. God bless you wherever you are, Ms. Woerner...
A font is a derivative of a typeface; such as the font Times New Roman Italics which is a derivative of the typeface Times New Roman. :)
Well, Mary Ann, of course!
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